The Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness will award up to $50 million in expanded support to SK bioscience as the company pursues a variant-proof vaccine candidate for sarbecoviruses, a group of viruses from which SARS-CoV-2 emerged.
“The rapid spread of the Omicron variant serves as a stark reminder of the ever-present threat posed by new COVID-19 variants, and their potential to derail the progress the world has made over the past year,” Dr. Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI, said. “It is vital for global health security to develop globally accessible vaccines that provide broad protection against COVID-19 variants and other coronaviruses. Through CEPI’s expanded partnership with SK bioscience, we aim to help control COVID-19 in the longer term and also prepare for the next viral threat before it emerges.”
This expanded partnership and its funding will support development of a vaccine candidate based on SK’s nanoparticle vaccine platform, covering immunogen ensign, preclinical studies, Phase 1/2 clinical trials, material production, process and analytical development. It is just the latest sign of the faith CEPI has placed in the company, though, with this latest investment bringing its total funding of SK’s platform and manufacturing capacity to $260 million.
CEPI is specifically eyeing it for use against COVID-19 and the continued threat posed by its variants. This candidate would be a recombinant-protein based on a two-component self-assembling nanoparticle platform created at the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design. If successful, a vaccine created through this method could provide broad protection against SARS-CoV-2 and other novel sarbecoviruses, would be scalable and host thermostability, for ease of transport and storage.
In Phase 1/2 studies of SK’s GBP510 COVID-19 vaccine candidate, created through this platform, high safety and generation of neutralizing antibodies were also noted.
“CEPI’s deep trust based on SK’s proven technology which is demonstrated during Phase III clinical trial of GBP510 and its manufacturing system has led to this expanded partnership,” Jaeyong Ahn, CEO of SK bioscience, said. “We will continue to research and develop to prepare long-term and fundamental solutions against the pandemic situation where various variants of COVID-19 keep threatening humanity.”
The award is the latest provided under a $200 million program CEPI launched in March to advance development of vaccines providing broad protection against a variety of coronaviruses, and a fraction of the $3.5 billion pandemic preparedness plan it has promoted. As part of their arrangement, CEPI and SK will provide hundreds of millions of doses of a vaccine developed in this way for equitable distribution, should it prove safe and effective.